


Journalistic Ethics

by Asterrious



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: An AU where Venom heals literally everything that could be wrong with Eddie, Anal Sex, Animal Death, Like aging., Manipulation, Manipulative Venom, Possessive Behavior, Set almost 80 years after the movie ends, handjob, horse death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-08-02 05:39:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16299152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asterrious/pseuds/Asterrious
Summary: Its eighty years after the events of the movie. Eddie's changed, a little bit.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An AU where Eddie and Venom are functionally immortal as long as they remain bonded. Was thinking about how spending years with each other would rub off on them. 
> 
> Purely movie continuity. continued whenever i get ideas to do so. smut in 4th chapter if u want it, but i can't guarantee its good.

Eddie’s getting _old._  


The realization doesn’t come to them because of aches or pains or wrinkles that line his weathered face. He doesn’t have any of those- Venom soothes over pain and exhaustion like the sweetest balm, erasing nerves that scream their body should have begun to break down a long time ago. Erasing any indication that Eddie isn’t still a younger man, still the same age he was when they bonded for the first time and became their true selves.  


He doesn’t look in mirrors much, but he knows he doesn’t have wrinkles or gray hairs. There’s no tremor in his hands that some people get as they age, no cracking knees or fading eyesight that hinders them as they hunt, as they live together in perfect harmony. Of course he noticed- its hard not to notice that you’re not changing as the city around you does. Hard not to notice when Anne and Dan have kids and those kids have kids and he’s Uncle Eddie to five-year-olds who think he’s their father’s brother. Doesn’t look old enough to be Anne and Dan’s friend, doesn’t look old enough to have known their grandparents.  


Its been 78 years since he’d met Venom. Seventy-eight years since they became whole. He knows instinctively that they will go for decades more years, and more after that. Indefinite in their symbiosis, feeding and helping each other grow into more than they could ever be apart.  


Eddie slides his hands into the pockets of the leather jacket curled around his shoulders, shielding him from the worst of the icy blasts of wind that tear through the streets. It’s a dreary day in San Francisco and he’s eager to be off the streets and back to their home as fast as he can get them there. Venom’s doing his best impression of a snow jacket, but there’s still a chill in Eddie’s bones that he can’t quite shake. It’s a huddle underneath the blankets kind of day; a turn his back on the world and let it move without them sort of day.  


**Hungry.**  


Just as soon as they get something to eat. Their hunger curls in the pit of his stomach like a snake, coiling in on itself and ready to strike at anything that comes near. Its been a while since they had something filling- the little rats and pigeons they find in dark parts of the streets are hardly more than snacks. And more and more people know to stay away from where Eddie makes his home. He slows his breathing down as they arrive in front of the run-down diner, images of chocolate milkshakes dancing in their thoughts. Eddie’s just sorry they can’t order some raw meat too.  


There’s a man and a woman waiting for them in the booth furthest from the entrance. Eddie recognizes the man as the one he’s come to meet, but the woman has her back turned to the door so he can’t see her face. No matter- he’d known that Gabe was going to bring a friend. His replacement, he’d said. Gabe knew better than to surprise Eddie at these little meetings.  


A waitress with dyed red hair saw him and nodded, gesturing at the booth before she went to put in his usual order. 5 large chocolate milkshakes were the usual payment he demanded from Gabe for their services, and the man was good about delivering. Their mouth watered at the thought and he had to swallow down a mouthful of saliva before sitting at the table.  


_**She’s young.**_ They thought together, watching her give him a quick once over. He probably looked like a mess- they hadn’t shaved the mass of hair growing from his chin in weeks, and Eddie could use a shower. They’d break into a gym to use their showers the next chance they got.  
Venom curls around his chest, tendrils from the leather jacket melting out to get a better look at the woman they’re supposed to be meeting. Someone they could trust, according to Gabe.  


“You’re V?” She says, keeping her voice low. Like there’s spies in every corner of the diner. Eddie doesn’t know why she bothers- if there were a threat in here, they wouldn’t have come in the door. They’re careful about who they show themselves too. The company they keep. Gabe is lucky Eddie watched him grow from a child into the older man sitting next to them. He trusts Anne and Dan’s son, even if he doesn’t yet trust the new girl.  


“This is Aubrey.” Gabe says as the waitress slams the first milkshake down in front of Eddie. Deliberately he lets his tongue curl from his mouth, slightly too long to be human, slightly too intelligent. Watching her for her reaction with one set of steely eyes and one set that is hidden and pearlescent. It wraps around the straw in their drink and then he’s downing the milkshake like there’s no tomorrow. Venom purrs where they’re draped on their shoulders, the taste of chocolate lighting up every single pleasure center in their mind.  


_Oh, sometimes the things Gabe asked for were a bitch to get, but the reward was always worth it._  


Aubrey, to her credit, shows only interest. There’s no hint of fear in her eyes.  


**We could fix that.**  


When he’s drained the whole drink, Eddie dips a hand into a pocket that manifests suddenly on the side of his jacket. From inside he pulls a pile of polaroids- good old-fashioned pictures, the kind that he worked with in his younger years. When he was first getting his start. There’s a tape recorder too and he passes these across the table to Gabe, letting the man flick through them quickly to make sure they’re what he asked for. They are. They always are. Venom and Eddie are good at what they do.  


“…Gabe said you’ve been his source since he got his start.” Aubrey begins slowly, eyes flicking between her mentor and the stranger at the table. She doesn’t have to worry; Eddie knows where this question is going.  


“Drank from the fountain of youth.” He says and flashes her a smile with Venom’s sharp teeth crowding their mouth. She quietly shrieks and the satisfying bit of fear he was looking for finally dawns on her face.  


Gabe intervenes quick though, before they can scare off his protégé.  


“He’s joking,” He says flatly, but he doesn’t mention what exactly Eddie was joking about.  


The second milkshake arrives and he doesn’t bother with the straw this time, just raises it above their head and tilts the whole of it into their open, waiting mouth. He might be showing off, just a little bit. It’s not often they show themselves to someone and don’t eat them after. That long tongue slithers out again to lick up the excess from the corners of their lips.  


“We’re V,” They tell Aubrey, and the leather jacket over his shoulders visibly shifts. Small white eyes poke out of the collar to watch her and the rest of the restaurant. They’re not worried about the waitress- Eddie stopped her shitty boyfriend from going on a drunk rampage one night. She’d never turn them in. But Venom can’t help but be cautious, protective. They like knowing they’re safe.  


“If you need dirt on someone, we can get it. Pictures, video, all that kind of shit. Only people that deserve it. No celebrity gossip. Politicians, businessmen, and the corrupt.”  


Eddie lays out the rules that he and Gabe have worked out.  


“If you’re here on a Monday, we’ll come find you and see what you want.”  


Aubrey’s silent. He doesn’t doubt that Gabe will have to answer a whole host of questions. As long as its not them.  


The waitress knows the drill and brings them the rest of the milkshakes all mixed into one giant cup. Eddie gives her all the cash in his pocket as a tip, three bills of unknown size that he’d stolen off the last guy crazy enough to try to mug him. Gabe slides him some more cash and he takes it with a shrug, figures his makeshift nephew is worried about him. They’re getting antsy sitting in one place though, especially with their business done.  


“Bye Gabe. Tell Cole we said hi.”  


Venom tucks closer to his chest and they’re sliding out of the booth before Aubrey can say anything else. She’s supposed to take over the news organization that Gabe started years ago, and if Gabe says she’s trustworthy then they’ll consider her trustworthy for now. It doesn’t mean they want to stay and get to know her.  


The symbiote swirls underneath his skin as Eddie exits back into the cooler air, drawing closer around him to help keep the chill away. They’ve got money in their pocket and a giant milkshake to enjoy- the only thing that could make the day better is a helping of raw meat dolloped on top, the whipped cream for a macabre dessert.  


There’s grocery stores they go to when they have cash and there’s grocery stores they go to when they don’t. The ones they go to when they don’t have any money are the big expensive stores with free-range, organic meat and butchers that like to stare at Eddie suspiciously. They’re so busy looking at his hands, making sure he’s not swiping anything, they don’t notice the edge of his jacket trailing in the cold section. Always a mystery how things go missing. Someone had stopped him once, suspicious, and Eddie had the distinct pleasure of letting them frisk him to find absolutely nothing hidden in his pockets. Venom ate that guy’s hands later- didn’t appreciate the rough touch.  


The grocery stores they go to when they have money are smaller. In run-down neighborhoods that most people don’t like to think about for too long. The shopkeepers know his face and know not to question the amount of raw meat he buys in one go. He’s stopped robberies in their stores half-a-dozen times each, enough that they just let him do his shopping and duck into the back alley to rip the packages apart.  


Venom’s face sprouts from his shoulder and they split a few steaks, crouching behind some dumpsters so they’re not visible from the street. Eddie strokes blood covered fingers over the symbiotes inky-black tendrils and they suck at the skin gently, cleaning them for him. Contentment streams through the bond, happiness at the way the world is working for them right now. The longing for their blankets has never been stronger- Eddie wants to curl up with his Venom and let the world move away.  


Something breaks through the happy haze they’ve settled in. Footsteps at the mouth of the alley that still and hide themselves quickly. Someone trying to peer down the concrete and catch a glimpse of them. Eddie inhales, long and deep, and the overly-sweet perfume Aubrey was wearing wafts to them on the breeze.  


_**She’s following us.**_ They think together, and Venom’s claws tear into the plastic covering of another package of meat.  


_She’s probably curious._  


**Could eat her.**  


He briefly considers it.  


_Gabe wouldn’t like it._  


**Gabe doesn’t have to know.**  


In another life this conversation would have disturbed him. But they’re different now, and all Eddie wants is to live in peace. All they want. And anyone who threatens that has to go.  


_Let’s hold off,_ He decides, and Venom purrs assent after a moment. Trusts him to make the right call. Love blooms thick and sweet in his chest and he doesn’t remember when it started to feel and taste like the copper of blood.  


When they’re finished with their meal, Eddie ducks out of the alleyway and pretends not to notice the brunette head that ducks into the nearest shop doorway to avoid being seen. She’s actually pretty good at tailing someone- if they were anyone other themselves they might not have noticed. He’s glad that’s a skill journalists still have these days.  


Quick feet take them home and its second nature to duck through the winding streets and twisting alleys. They’ve been staying under a bridge for a few months now, made their home against one of the concrete pillars that holds it above the rest of the foot traffic. Eddie spots their backpack right where they left it, leaning against the grey expanse of stone. Like anyone would dare touch it.  


Errantly he wonders what Aubrey is thinking, as he carefully picks his way through the camp that has sprung up around where he makes his home. That springs up wherever he tries to make his home. People don’t look at him but they shuffle out of his way, move bags or blankets so he doesn’t have to go too far around to reach the blank circle in the middle of the largest homeless camp in San Francisco. Its always the largest camp in San Francisco, no matter how often he picks up and leaves and tries to find somewhere to themselves.  


They’ve given up trying for now. A little bit of his conscience still bleeds around the edges of them and he can’t blame them for flocking to a bit of safety. Venom’s territorial, and these people aren’t a threat. The killers and murderers, the ones who would prey on the vulnerable, take advantage of those who no one cares about… They’re the threat. They make good food.  


Eddie doesn’t read the news anymore, but he’s seen the headlines in passing. San Francisco is the safest city in the nation for the homeless. Maybe he should feel bad about using these people as bait for food, but they come to him and Venom, not the other way around. And its not like they give them nothing in return.  
Aubrey has a harder time getting through the camp. She sticks out like a sore thumb, too clean, too eager to follow behind him. No one who belongs around here is eager to get close to Eddie, no matter what kind of protector status he and Venom have.  


Their blankets are there and he wraps up in them gratefully, pulling the fabric around himself like a cocoon. Venom seeps through the fabric, abandoning his form as a jacket to lend another insulating layer to the blanket. He thanks the symbiote with a pulse of warmth in their bond and feels a purring surround him. They’re tired now, full and stuffed with food.  


Aubrey is still there. She’s standing at the edge of the circle Eddie’s claimed, and he can feel her presence as an intrusion, a blight, on a day that should be just him and Venom. Just them.  


“What do you want?” He calls out, poking his head out of the blanket. She’s staring at him, at the gray blanket that had suddenly turned black with Venom lacing through it. She needs to get used to that sort of thing if she’s going to be buying him his milkshakes when Gabe retires.  


“You’re Eddie Brock.” She says. Its not a question.  


That’s interesting. He’s never been recognized before.  


They shift, sitting up. Venom curls around his shoulders to keep them warm when the blanket falls, like a liquid scarf, and Aubrey only stares for a moment at the living garment he wears.  


“Used to be.” Eddie answers and shrugs, absently running his fingers through Venom’s mass. It’s comforting, to feel the symbiote sliding over his skin. “How do you know?”  


“…You’re a debate. In most journalistic ethics classes. Over… Breaking into your fiancée’s computer, and the… repercussions.”  


_**“Jesus fucking Christ.”**_  


They both swear aloud and Aubrey jumps, but they’re already fucking losing their mind over the idea of bored college kids talking about their life. Watching his old videos, hearing about the decision he made that cost him his fiancée and his job. Learning that he was eventually right, but that he went missing after the explosion, and _what does this teach us about journalism kids? Do you think it was worth it? Please discuss this man’s life choices when you’ve never met him and don’t know the whole story. You will be graded on this._  


“God. Fuck. Holy shit.”  


It takes them minutes to get a handle on themselves. Venom’s wiping tears from his eyes for him.  


“That’s fucking priceless.”  


**“What side were you on?”** Venom asks Aubrey with glee, and she directs her attention to his scarf with only a small gulp.  


“…I don’t really feel safe telling you that.” She says, and yeah, he can’t blame her. Their teeth are sharp. But its obvious from her reaction she’s on the side that thinks he did something shitty.  


That’s fine. He did. It led to something good, but there’s a reason Anne broke up with him.  


“Damn kid. That’s the best thing we’ve heard all month.” Eddie smiles at her, a real smile, without Venom’s teeth pushing into his mouth.  


“As thanks for telling us that juicy little tidbit, we won’t eat you for following us here.”  


Aubrey goes a bit pale.  


“Don’t do it again, okay?”  


He doesn’t watch her to see if she nods or anything, just re-wraps himself in his blanket and settles against the pillar of the bridge. Venom’s still laughing inside him, and Eddie feels the symbiote’s happiness like sunlight spreading over his skin.  


**Humans are stupid.** It whispers in its mind when it has a better hold on itself, and he’s giggling again.  


_They are babe._  


Eddie’s getting old. Old enough he doesn’t question separating himself from the rest of humanity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ppl liked it and i had a little bit more of an idea on stuff to write so. here's this. maybe i'll continue, maybe not? idk?

Why did they think the kids were five?

Gabe and Cole’s house is lit up like a Christmas tree, except its February and every single other house in their neighborhood, and probably the whole city, has already taken their lights down months ago. They do it every year, keep the lights up until the twin’s birthday and taken them down the week after. Says it’s only right to keep their decorations around until the real holiday gets there.

They love those kids more than anyone else has ever loved their kids, probably. 

That means Eddie and Venom love those kids too, because they love Gabe like they loved his parents. Not in the same way they love being themselves, never that, but protective. Like they got a job to do, keeping the family happy. You don’t watch kids grow up without developing some sort of fondness for them. 

Eddie’s whole being, existence, is love and even if they’re not really human or symbiote anymore, some of it squeezes through the black mass they’re all choked up in.

They knock lightly on the door and shift the presents they’ve got under their arm. Sam and Julie are setting the table inside, the clink of the plates on the table slipping under the door like a welcome wagon. The twins definitely aren’t turning five- twelve maybe? Thirteen? They’re young for how old Gabe and Cole are, they know that. It took a long time to adopt the twins, long time to adopt any baby like the couple had so desperately wanted. 

**Wanna give them to them.**

Black tendrils slide over the packaging Eddie’d scrounged around from somewhere, squirming in excitement. They imagine the twins’ faces when they see them.

It’s a good thing they can remember more about what they like than about how old they are. Eddie and Venom know they picked out good presents. 

Gabe opens the door and he’s smiling that them. 

“Kids! Uncle Eddie’s here!”

One day he’ll get him to call them Uncle V in front of the kids, because it feels a hell of a lot more natural to respond to that than anything else. When someone says Eddie, it feels like they’re talking to someone else and expect him to respond. They notice the uncle part more than anything. But Cole doesn’t like the reminder that a large piece of Gabe’s family is something inhuman, and so they prick their ears for it anyway. Respect his wishes and all that shit.

Sam and Julie crowd the entryway. Eddie and V force themselves to ignore the feeling of foreign hands on them, because they know these hands. Even if it doesn’t really feel like it. Any touch other than their own feels foreign and strange.

“Hi guys,” They say, and smile their real smile at them. The twins love it when they do that, with the teeth and everything. Never scared, just like Gabe was never scared. A bit of doubt lingers in his their mind, because they’re pretty sure their real smile didn’t used to be the sharp one, but its not a huge deal.

Cole’s putting dinner down on the table, a pile of burgers and a salad bowl filled to the brim with french fries. They put their teeth away, because it bothers Cole when they have them out around the kids and they don’t want to upset Gabe. 

Cole’s not the same as Gabe or the twins, but hurting him would hurt the family they’ve somehow got now and so they never would.  
Sam and Julie are cute kids. Sam’s lost the buckteeth since they last saw him- or did he lose those a long time ago? Or were they Julie’s?

Time doesn’t really have much of a meaning anymore. They remember events better than they remember facts.

Dinner’s good. Eddie and Venom let the kids chatter at them, telling them about everything that’s happened in school since they last saw their uncle. Gabe put a few raw burgers into buns and slipped them in on the tray for them, and they devour them happily. It’s not much of a meal, but its enough when combined with the woman newly missing from San Francisco’s streets. They like it more for the company it’s shared in. 

Almost makes Eddie feel normal again, like the days before Venom was so inextricably a part of him. Usually that’d be a thought that burned, that hurt worse than anything else, but its okay here with people chattering around him and warmth in their chest and Venom purring happy in their mind. And yeah, sometimes its good to remember when they were a yawning void, crying out to be completed. Makes knowing that they’re together now so much more worth it.

The twins love their presents. 

Cole frowns disapprovingly at the literal switchblades Eddie and Venom have given the kids. Gabe doesn’t look much happier, but they know that he understands the protective feelings behind the gifts. Stole them fair and square from a pawn shop, had to get them the second they saw the matching black handles and pearlescent sheen on the blade. 

Its probably a good thing they were wrong about the kids being five, now that they’re thinking about it. They’re pretty sure Gabe’s gonna grab those things and keep ‘em locked somewhere until Sam and Julie are older, but that’s okay. The twins will know where they are if they ever need them. Their uncle will have no trouble stealing them back for them. 

They stay for a drink with Cole and Gabe after the kids hole themselves up in their rooms. The alcohol does absolutely nothing in their system and it burns on the way in, but it’s the thing to do when you’re visiting with adult friends. Feels weird to think of Gabe like that, since they’re still having trouble with the timeline of their life. They just know they’ve been together for years, and will be for longer. 

Venom was much older than Eddie was. So much older than the human body that they inhabit together. They comprehend passing years in three different time scales, the one the symbiote has, the one Eddie has, and the one they think about together. 

He doesn’t know when they got on top of the Golden Gate Bridge, but the view is nice out here. There’s an idea percolating in the back of their mind and it’s hard to figure out who started it, but Venom likes to take them up high to sort things out. Figure out exactly what is swirling through their synapnses and making them feel… off. 

The rushing lights below make everything else fall away and its just them and the blackness of the sky above, the void they’re immune to so long as they’re together.

_What is it?_ Eddie finally asks, wondering how the night has landed them here. Its not that he’s concerned- he trusts Venom with everything he is- but he’s curious. Usually Gabe, the twins, are enough to hold their attention for a while. Venom and he revel in love, and familial is a form they can’t satisfy themselves. One of the only things they can’t satisfy themselves. 

**Feel restless.**

The word turns over in their head, and yeah, okay, Eddie’s starting to see how it might apply to them right now. Just going home, to under the bridge, isn’t appealing. Neither was staying in the house and watching Cole flinch when they let their guard down, let a little bit of their true selves through. But they can’t eat him, because Gabe loves him and they love Gabriel. They’ve been over and over this in a terrible clamoring in their mind and he pushes it away in favor of feeling the slithering under their skin that for once has nothing to do with hunger or want.

Not targeted want anyway. A low level want, a longing for something that they can’t place. Eddie wonders. They’ve been over every inch of this city, know it inside and out All the haunts and hiding spots, everything they could ever possibly need that’s within its boundaries.   
Maybe that’s not enough anymore.

_Wanna travel?_

The thought is an errant one, but it interests them more than Eddie thought it would. 

They’re bored, maybe? With the routine of their life, with huddling against the walls and relaxing in each other’s presence. Or, not bored, because they’d be perfectly happy to do that for the rest of eternity if they could. Maybe Venom said the right word first.

**Restless.**

_We could go somewhere. See other cities. Other countries._

Venom’s flipping through memories of New York buried somewhere deep in his brain, and he gets flashes of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the art of walking down the crowded sidewalks without touching a single person on the way. Eddie had liked it there, before he’d been forced to leave. 

There’s other places they could go too, places that they haven’t been before. Places that he’s heard of but never bothered to visit- huge gashes in the Earth and vast mountains that hug their land like chain-link. 

**Can we jump into the canyon?** Venom asks, excited, and its fixated on one particular point that stands out in their mind. The knowledge that somewhere, there’s canyons that jut high into the air and enormous pits beneath them, just waiting to be conquered. For them to get off their asses and head out, see more than their little patch of San Francisco, no matter how much they love it. 

Maybe the alcohol affected them a little bit. Just a touch.

_Sure._

They’ll have to figure out how they’re going to get there. There’s probably bus tickets you can buy for that sort of thing, but all of Eddie’s cash goes to meat and water and chocolate. They could just hang out on the roof of the bus the whole way, but someone’s bound to notice and it’ll get too hot, hanging out in the sun for all that distance. 

Maybe they should ask Gabe. 

They’re moving before the thought finishes completely and in no time they’re back where they started the night, only the lights are no longer lit and the clatter of plates doesn’t welcome them in. Figuring the household is asleep, they crawl up the side of the house and to the window they know is Gabe’s. It’s a simple matter to manipulate a few of their tendrils under the sill and into the room to slide the lock, and then they lower themselves to the floor. 

It must have been a while since they left. Both of them are sound asleep and Eddie stands next to the bed for a moment, debating whether or not to wake Gabriel up. Before they’ve fully decided, there are tendrils curling around the human’s shoulders and gently shaking him awake. 

“F- What? What?”

Venom stifles him easily with a thick band around his mouth until Gabe realizes who it is standing above him. Don’t want to wake Cole and give the man even more reason to feel uneasy around them. He’s already so skittish. 

“What the hell Uncle V?” He asks low and they shrug their shoulders, already turning on a heel to leave the bedroom and continue the conversation elsewhere. Their skin is black and their head touches the ceiling, and that’s another thing they don’t really remember doing, but that’s fine. It’s Gabe.

_**“We want to travel.”** _

“You want to _what?”_

_**“Travel.”** _

Gabe stares at him like they’re talking nonsense, but they know he understands them. He’s used to this. 

“…Couldn’t this wait until morning?” He asks, already grabbing his laptop from where it’s charging on the coffee table and gesturing them over to the couch. They’re a little big in this current form, take up a lot of room, but they don’t really feel like being any other way right now. Gabe squeezes in like he always manages to find a way to do and they’re once again calming themselves, because it’s not just anyone. It’s Gabriel.

“Do you know where you want to go?” He asks them, poised like a statue ready to gather information for them. Eddie could do this himself if he felt like sitting in a library and using the public access computers, but he doesn’t, and so they don’t .

**“Canyon.”** Venom says, and to his credit their nephew gets what they mean almost immediately. Quickly the screen is full of pictures of the Grand Canyon, dizzying images of drops and desert and vultures winging high over the ground. Their mouth waters.

“How are you going to get there?” 

They shrug again and watch Gabe roll his eyes before pulling up options. Planes are out immediately- they don’t like being confined in small spaces. Cars aren’t much better but at least they can get out of them when they want to take a break. There’s the idea of a bus, and they put that one in the maybe column. Trains too, though there’s a lot of switching and waiting that has to be done to get them where they want to go. 

“Why travel now?” Gabe asks as he prints their bus ticket for them, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. There’s wrinkles in the corners of them where they scrunch up where he laughs. There’s an image in Eddie’s mind of a little boy hanging off one of Venom’s tendrils like it’s a swing and the absolute white of his mother’s face as she watched. 

The bus leaves in three hours, plenty of time to collect their things and have one last snack before they go.

_**“Restless,”**_ they answer. It’s the only one they have.

“Gonna be gone long?” He says, raising his eyebrows. “I’m retiring next month, remember? I was hoping you’d be around and help Aubrey get her running start.”

They’d already forgotten the girl they’d met the other week. She wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things. 

_“We’ll be back before the ceremony,”_ Eddie promises, because that sounds doable and its important to Gabe. Gives them a whole month to wander the canyon and go farther if the fancy suits them. It probably will. 

“Thanks.”

Their nephew leans his head on their arm, doesn’t mind the give of symbiote flesh that gently curls itself through his salt-and-pepper hair. Gabe liked to nap on them as a child. 

When he’s almost asleep once more they send him off to bed, blearily rubbing his eyes. He puts his hand out to grab the banister so he can walk up the stairs, but falls a few inches short of actually reaching it. There’s a tendril there for him to grab onto though, and they walk Gabe back to his bedroom. Cole hasn’t stirred, they note with satisfaction.

With the human under the blankets once again, they reach into the box he keeps under his bed. Where he’s kept everything he considers secret since he was a little boy. 

Venom going out of town was definitely an occasion the children should have knives for. Their teeth weren’t sharp enough to defend them if something happened. 

After leaving the gifts on their nightstands, trusting they’ll know to keep them safe and hidden when they seem them in the morning, Eddie and Venom make their way back to the bridge. Its always the same careful pick through the crowd, except this time people barely move as they step around bodies and bags to get to their backpack. 

Not much to pack up. They leave as quickly as they came and would wonder how quick the city that sprung up around their home will dissipate in their absence, if they weren’t vibrating through their shared skin with excitement. Tendrils of ink slip up his arms and nudge affectionately at his cheeks as they walk.

The bus station smells of exhaust.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eddie has a panic attack. venom helps.

The bus doesn’t have air conditioning. Its really hot inside the giant metal can and the shocks are definitely, definitely in need of repair. They rattle and shake with every slight turn of the driver’s wheel. Eddie’s head is leaning on the window, like how he always sat in the bus when he was a kid.

Turned away from everyone else, watching the world go by. Easier to face a smudge of trees and houses flying by than the rest of the people around him. 

Their head is bumping against the glass every time the bus shudders and it hurts. He doesn’t pull away, lets the rhythmic thumping overtake his mind.

**Eddie?**

Its been a while since Venom called him that. It breaks through the haze that’s settled itself over him like a stifling blanket. He inclines his head away from the window slightly.

 _Yeah?_  


There’s a red mark on his forehead, where it’d been hitting the glass. It hurts a little. A finger reaches up to press on it and he watches Venom flinch from the sensation. They don’t heal it, not yet.

Eddie doesn’t want it to.

**Something’s wrong.**

Automatically they scan the bus, despite knowing every passenger around them by heart now. There’s five people, all scattered throughout the seats, stick to the fake leather with sweat and skin. Eddie’s own arms are firmly anchored. 

Two girls sitting together, sharing ear buds that blast death metal into the air. A man in front of them who’s slept for most of the trip. A man to their side and up a little, who’s got his nose buried in a book. They’re in the last row on the bus, where they don’t have to worry about someone sitting behind them. Its safer.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary.

 _What’s up?_ He asks, because he trusts Venom’s senses far more than he trusts his own. And Venom’s not sharing as much of its senses with him like it usually does; there’s no heightened scents on the air, no blurry hint of double vision at the edge of his eyes that tells him when they’re sharing them. 

**You’re hurting.** It tells him. His focus turns inward but all he feels is the thudding of their heart and the squeeze of togetherness around his lungs. Feeling Venom in the body is a bit like the time he broke a bone as a kid. The body was supposed to hold off the pain for a little, to give you time to get away from whatever hurt you.

He’d used the time to stare at his arm, feeling the presence of the bone underneath his skin in a way he never usually could. In a way he was never meant to. The sensation of wrongness had stayed with him. 

It curled there now, hugging his lungs as if to help him breathe the stale, dusty air. It wasn’t wrong anymore, he had remind himself. Just strange. Still something he wasn’t meant to feel, but that didn’t mean it was wrong.

 _No we?_ Eddie asks, and maybe it’s the use of the singular pronoun that’s making him feel like that. It couldn’t be Venom- never Venom, never them. They belonged together. 

You’re hurting. Venom says again, and there’s sadness in its voice. Instantly he understands- Eddie’s head, knocking against the window again and again. Hurting, but unwilling to be healed. Enjoying the pain.

_We’re okay._

Venom’s better at switching pronouns around when something’s going on. Eddie falls into patterns- either they’re ‘we’ or they don’t exist, because two separate individuals haven’t existed for decades now. Eddie doesn’t know who he is without _we_ sitting in the back of his throat.

Their fingers twitch and he looks down to see flecks of black mixing with the pale color of their skin. He flexes the digits and the flecks react, stretching with his skin and returning to their original shape when he is still. Bits of Venom, left behind haphazardly. Venom’s better at the pronouns, but it forgets which parts of it are the parts humans don’t have and which are the parts it can show the world. 

**Lying, Eddie.**

They’re both treated to a sudden vision- Eddie as a kid, steadfastly sitting in a corner on the bus, watching out the blurry window. Classmates giggling, because Eddie-the-Liar told them another fantastic story about how big his house was and how rich his parents were, and doesn’t he know that they already know he’s dirt poor? Can’t afford better shoes, can’t afford a bookbag without holes in it. Eddie-the-Liar, trying to make the people around him believe in a fantasy so that maybe, maybe, he can start to do it too.

They jump and smack their head on the glass of the window loud enough that the man with the book looks up and back at them. Pain lances through their skull and Eddie almost wants to revel in it, but he knows Venom can feel this too. Knows Venom doesn’t like it when they hurt. Its gone again in an instant.

They must still look pretty bad because the man puts his book down and carefully shifts to the seat right next to them. Not touching, which is good, because Eddie can feel Venom’s possessiveness welling up under their skin like warm blood pooling on a cool carcass. The urge to wrap them up in darkness and hide away for years and years. 

Why is it now Venom’s possessiveness? Usually- usually its theirs. Usually that’s what he- they- he wants. 

“You okay man?” The guys asks, sounding both like he’s worried and he’s desperately hoping Eddie will say yes. So he can go back to whatever he was reading and forget them. 

This man thinks they’re human. Why does that feel like a damning, world-ending assumption?

Eddie’s breathing quick now. He sees himself as this man probably sees him, a sweaty mess huddled in the corner of the bus, letting the window smack him again and again. Eyes wide and mouth parted and skin pale like he’d never seen the sun. 

He doesn’t know what curls beneath the surface of Eddie’s skin, doesn’t know what lurks inside him. Inside them. 

They’re Venom, right?

Only, the world around them is seeing this human. This fragile, breakable human. And Eddie’s got memories too, of being like the twins. Being a kid, being small and powerless and unable to do anything when he was teased or made fun of. And yeah, that was a long time ago, but he still has these flashbacks doesn’t he? 

He’s still human. And it hurts.

Because he’s not supposed to know that information, feels like. Eddie doesn’t know what its like to exist without curled black tendrils wrapped tight around his brain, creeping into every crevice that made him who he is. Eddie doesn’t remember the time before Venom as anything but hurt and Void and being so so empty all the time without even knowing it.

And now, looking back, he can feel that emptiness in his younger self. Feel it even though he shouldn’t be able to, like the broken bone in his arm.

Being a human is being alone and empty and hurting and not even knowing that you ache. 

And Eddie’s human. Right? So he is alone, and empty, and hurting. Only this time he knows it, and his body won’t do him the courtesy of blocking the pain so he can get himself to safety. Its just him and this man in the back of a too-hot bus and he’s cornered like a mouse in a trap.

The man is staring at the black marks on his hands. Eddie looks down at them too, uncomprehending. 

Venom explodes into existence around his brain. 

Blessed dark and cool air blows over his skin as Eddie falls back into an embrace that feels half like a hug and half like someone trying to piece him back together. Its dark and nice here, lying in the void. 

Venom’s with him. Its all-around him, an all-consuming presence that soothes parts of him he didn’t know were hurting. Eddie reaches out for something to hold onto and the pearlescent sheen of eyes on his body is comforting even though he can’t quite find anything to grip. It feels like nothing in here.

His breathing’s starting to slow down. He remembers- this is what its like when Venom is fully in control. When Venom’s the one who stares from behind their eyes and speaks with their tongue.

Theirs. Their body. Their eyes, their mouth, their nose.

He takes a deep breath and its like inhaling water. All the black around him rushes forward to flood his lungs, filling him from the inside out with soothing, calming pressure. It flows through his veins and twists itself deep in his tissue and now-

Now they’re Venom, and they’re okay.

Venom’s sitting in the seat and Venom tells the guy that they’re fine, with just a little bit too much of a smile. Venom sits back and closes their eyes once he leaves. 

Venom’s in there with him too, in this calming place. Its head materializes and rubs against his side, pressing vibrating kisses to his skin. He reaches for it, curls up around its snout so Venom can tuck in close to his chest. 

**“Mine, Eddie.”** Venom tells him, in a voice so thick it feels like he’ll choke on the words. It’s a balm to his racing synapses, soothing their heartbeat back down to a crawl, re-twisting through his mind like roots planting firmly in the ground. 

They’re Venom, and he’s here. With his symbiote. Like he should be. 

Eddie doesn’t have to think about who they used to be. Doesn’t have to remember the kid who got tired of being called a liar, doesn’t have to think about stumbling away from the bigger kids with his arm cradled to his chest, hoping they won’t follow him home as he screams and screams from pain.

 **“Got us.”** Venom tells him, licking its long tongue over his face. He closes his eyes in this place and lets it cover him in affection, love. Reminding him of who he is, who he always should be. The _we_ is back in his throat and its burns through the darkness bright enough that Eddie opens their eyes to the bus once more.

A tendril rubs over the red mark on their forehead and their pain fades instantly. Eddie sends thanks through their bond and is met with a wave of smothering love that threatens to drown him. It might have scared him, once, the possessiveness and undying devotion that lie underneath it. The surety that at the end of the universe, it will be Venom together floating through the blackness, the nothingness.

But Eddie doesn’t know how to live without being all choked up in black tendrils that fade so seamlessly into his limbs that they can’t tell the difference anymore.

It’s lucky he’ll never have to know. 

Venom purrs, happy to have calmed its host, their perfect host, their Eddie. Eddie just needs help remembering sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is titled 'unhealthy relationships?' on my laptop if that tells you anything


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rated e for eddie-getting-his-ass-reamed
> 
> (also if you've commented, you've made my entire year. sorry i don't respond but please know each and every one of them makes me incredibly happy)

The canyon’s spread out like a grave in the earth, dug in neat, jagged lines for some god that has long refused to lie in its embrace. It makes them feel small which is not something they usually do. Venom curls around his shoulders and he gets the distinct impression it didn’t like that thought. 

Fingers run through their hair as they watch the sun begin to set over the landscape. It burns the horizon, watching the grave laid out for it and sinking away anyway, to rise once again in mockery of those who would mourn its passing.

A man walks next to them and gives them a cup of coffee. Eddie turns to offer him a thank-you, breaking whatever poetic mood they’ve fallen into. The guy from the bus is nice. His name is Will and he says they remind him of his son.

There wasn’t a lot of information about the canyon in their memories, just knowledge of its existence. They weren’t expecting it to be so vast- its all they can see for miles and miles. 

Will has a lot of bags. Eddie helps him carry them to the campsite he’s using for the next few days, while he chatters about the beauty of national parks and the open air. He tells them how strong they are, to carry all of his things, and Venom preens at the compliment. 

Its strange to walk in step with someone again. He keeps sneaking glances to the side, sure that at any moment Will is going to realize there is something wrong with them. These hands that hold a suitcase and a folded tent should really have long claws and slick black skin and a chill that runs bone deep. 

Walking along the edge of the canyon, they flash to another memory. 

Venom’s face in front of his, the toothy smile still relatively new, relatively strange. It’s only been a year or two since they met, only a year or two since they’ve been changed, and they’re not quite One yet. 

**We’ll never leave** , Venom had promised and Eddie’s breath had caught in his throat, an ache in his heart at the knowledge that one day they would have to. That one day, the symbiote will have to peel itself from his corpse, unable to keep beating a heart that has given up. Human life spans were so much shorter than theirs.

 **NO.** It thought, loud and commanding. He cowered from what he thought was anger, but the symbiote pressed him close and whispered until he knew. Knew that as long as they were together the world was at their feet. That as long as they breathed the same air and felt the same heartbeat, they could share the years flying by. 

They were Venom, and Venom wasn’t human. 

_I’ll lay the stars at our feet one day,_ Eddie promised his symbiote, because what could he do but offer up everything to the one giving it all to him? He had already given himself over to the roots of black and pearl. Jewel that climbed up his skin and nested in their brain, a precious, precious treasure hidden within sinew and blood. Eddie the dragon and Venom the gold he would guard jealously.

That was when he was young and didn’t understand. Now he knows that they are the dragon and treasure in one.

Now they walk on the precipice of the canyon and the stars are above them and Eddie would tear their heart from their chest if Venom asked him to. 

And for now, their hands are full of human life. 

Will asks them to place his things on the ground near his campsite. He has a designated space marked out for him and a little paper in his hand that says he can sleep there for a few nights. They watch him set up for a moment before their attention wanders back to the cliffs and the delicious, heart-rending, dizzying drop.

They hear him calling out vaguely, wondering where they’ve gone so fast, but Eddie’s already run off the edge. 

He reaches out a hand and black surrounds his skin, whipping at the flesh like that wind that rushes past their ears. Venom’s screaming for joy as they fall and the sound vibrates their entire body like they’re breaking apart. Like at any moment they’ll be separated and splattered against the ground, because its rushing up fast and all he knows is that they’re together and they’re shaking and adrenaline might have replaced all the blood in their body.

A full-body hug envelops them the instant before they hit the ground. Venom goes tumbling head over heels across the ground, shaking the earth and dislodging rocks from their homes. 

Eddie raises their head, now clad in onyx and pearl scales, and bellows their joy to the pin-prick shining stars above. From here they’re barely visible.

 _I’ll lay the stars at our feet one day,_ He’d promised, and now they lay buried in the earth, farther from them than they’ve ever been. They couldn’t be happier. 

Love courses through their mind, the word and the overwhelming feeling all at the same time. The hug has never ended and they’re held tight in their own arms, mass trembling over sensitive skin. 

He realizes suddenly, that their blood isn’t adrenaline. It’s constructed of devotion, flowing with happiness, so uniquely twisted up that he’s sure they bleed black ink and gems. 

**Want** the symbiote cries in their bond, and he feels their hands smooth over their form, savors the give of flesh beneath claws. Eddie throws his head back and watches cracks in the ground appear as they writhe. 

Hot, wet flesh winds around their cock and it’s always, always better than the time before. They can cum without touching themselves but they need to feel the snap of their wrist, the drag of a hand over their weeping cock. Venom is all soft and dripping ink, and the dick between their legs juts hard and proud like the canyon walls. 

One, two, three pumps and they lose themselves in white-heat that threatens to sever them but instead burns them together. Sears all their exits until they’re one, cauterizing any differences, wounds, holes. 

They do it again. Climb all the way to the top of the canyon and jump off over and over, screaming their delight for all to hear. They fuck into their fist because nothing else in this world could give them the satisfaction they can give themselves. Eddie loses count of how many times they cum, and in the portion of his mind that still thinks of such matters he flashes to the church he spent his childhood in. Can hear himself asking a priest an opinion on this.

On a god who would give something so good, so whole, so absolutely perfect, to only one person on earth. To one person named Eddie who fucked up everything good in his life from his idiocy and stubbornness. 

Venom’s face moves in front of his eyes and he knows they caught the end of that thought. 

**DON’T THINK OF OTHERS.**

The symbiote sounds like he’s committed the greatest sin in the world. He can’t help but laugh. 

But Eddie’s sorry, so sorry, and shows them by arching their back into the air and lowering his head to the dirt. Presenting his ass, his needy, aching hole to the wilderness around them. Offering his neck to the beast that boils beneath their skin, to show it that yes, its true, _I’m yours._

Hunger overwhelms them, so tempting, so juicy, so pretty when his hole clenches around nothing, desperate to be filled. Claws curl around his hips to slap him back on a shape he knows isn’t truly there. It’s a form of ink and teeth seeping from their skin, pressing all the right places to make his mind conjure the image of a behemoth that takes him, claims him, presses him down into the dirt and fucks him until he forgets they’re anything other than a mass of flesh and jewels writhing together. He’s making sounds that he’s not sure come from his throat, moans and grunts and the whimpers of begging that is understood before he can even start.

It’s so deliriously, mind-bendingly delicious that neither of them notice the footsteps until its far too late. Until there’s boots a few feet away, their owner shining a flashlight on the writhing mass of black and cream flesh.

“Kid?”

They screech in surprise. Venom’s suddenly all the way out, covering every inch of Eddie’s body, shielding him from the figure watching. Any bit of pleasure seeps from their body, and his consciousness is muted because there might be danger, there definitely is danger, and Venom must protect, guard, hide, save their host, their perfect one-

All they are is rage, and the knowledge someone else has seen. Eddie, writhing in pleasure. Eddie, presenting himself to be fucked. Eddie’s needy noises, meant to be secret. Just for them.

Will blinks at the monster in the flashlight’s beam and stumbles back when it bares its fangs, ready to devour him for what he has seen. One hand tipped in onyx claws raises to strike the man down, but it catches in the air on some invisible hook. 

The human is frozen as the creature waits on some unseen cue, waits to tear him to shreds that will be unidentifiable as a person. 

To his disgust and horror the monster’s face splits apart, half dominated by the pearlescent eye and half the stubbly visage of the kid who’d carried his things earlier.

“What are you doing here?” They ask, and it takes more effort than it normally would. Venom is a whirlwind of fire and sharp teeth in their bond and Eddie can barely hold them back from tearing him apart. 

The coffee had tasted good though. And he let them put in as many pumps of mocha as they wanted.

Will doesn’t run or scream again, doesn’t do anything they expect him too, and really Eddie has to wonder at the survivability of the human race. No self-preservation instincts to speak of.

“Get away from him!” The man shouts, fumbling for something to throw. It takes them a moment to realize he thinks Venom is attacking Eddie, hurting him. 

Their laughter stills the human’s hands.

 _ **“We are him,”**_ they say together, and the side of Eddie’s face that remains exposed pulls itself into a smile. Meant to be reassuring, a sign that he’s safe, he’s happy.

Will turns and retches on the dirt. 

“Ranger…” He pants, trying to get the words out around the gagging. “Ranger said they saw someone jump in the area. Got a whole-”

Now they hear it, when they know there’s something to look for. People wandering the bottom of the canyon, trucks that rumble over rocks and disturb earth long since laid to rest. Dogs searching for the scent of a corpse. Will’s still talking.

“- out looking for the body. Was… Was that you?”

He’s pointedly only talking to the side with Eddie’s face. The anger they feel at the symbiote being ignored is not easily quelled. But they’ve refrained from killing him once. And they think to themselves that Venom could never bring itself to harm one who cared for Eddie.

Still, they re-coat themselves in their armor of onyx and pearl, the scales of the dragon and the metal plate of the knight one and the same. They can’t stay here now. 

The human staggers back against the wall as Venom approaches him, their breath hot and muggy on his face.

 _ **“We are fine,”**_ They tell him, the words more Eddie than Venom. _**“Thank you for caring. Goodbye.”**_

His flashlight beam follows them as they climb the wall of the canyon, away from the noise of humans and the threat of discovery. 

Will is a nice person, which is a shame. They're hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also titled 'old man watches them have sex for a full minute before deciding that venom must be eating eddie'
> 
> also also titled 'this style doesn't lend itself well to smut, sorry'


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> snickers commercial voice: _you're not you when you're hangry_

They’re dreaming.

Anne’s caught in a sea of churning, writhing, boiling colors that mingle together to create shades never before known. She looks young, like how she is in most of Eddie’s memories. Not like how she was when she died. 

They’re dreaming.

A hand reaches out to drop some change at their feet, and black tendrils return it to the pocket of the passerby before they’re more than a few steps away. Eddie sleeps and Venom faithfully keeps watch. Others need it more than they.

They’re dreaming.

The passerby is Anne, except she’s wearing those writhing shapes and she turns to scream at them, to yell, to worry. 

_Something’s happening to you Eddie, you’re not the same, I’m just worried about you, not acting like yourself-_

They’re dreaming.

Out of the shapes that surround her, twisting over skin, Gabe and the twins fall to the concrete in front of them. Black tendrils sneak change into their pockets, except the change is pieces of bone and droplets of blood that condense and coalesce into beating hearts when the children hold them.

They’re dreaming.

Eddie is asleep, floating in that sea of shapes on a raft made of onyx and storm clouds. It is fighting the rest of the shapes away from him, keeping him safe from reaching silver-red and yellow-blue and blood-ink. Some of the hands that reach for him are Anne’s, Dan’s. His own human hands emerge, the ones without the dragon’s black claws tipping the ends.

Venom tosses them all back beneath the boiling sea for him.

They’re awake. They’re hungry.

Eddie ghosts through the forest. It surprises him to find one in what he thought was all desert. They can smell something ahead of them, something large and full of life that’s ripe for the taking. Bigger than a human. 

Black coils around their wrists like bracelets, a comfortingly tight grip. The symbiote wrapped through his heart is guiding their steps more than it usually does and he knows something’s wrong. 

**Nothing big. Don’t worry.**

Soothing before the anxiety comes. That’s an even bigger red flag.

“What is it?” Edie asks aloud, bringing his wrists up his mouth to kiss at the black flesh wrapped there. It sticks to his lips and cheeks, leaving a slight burn when he pulls away. Like those seeds with gripping claws burying themselves in his flesh, except its sweet and gentle and he knows the symbiote kissed him back.

**…Man saw us.**

A picture of Will flashes up in their mind, his eyes wide like the moon. It shifts, changes to the glare of a flashlight interrupting their pleasure, the burning knowledge that someone else has seen and the hatred of letting them live. Possessiveness grips at his heart and he feels a twinge, the crush of love and adoration wrapping the coils even tighter.

“He’s a good man.” He says, shrugging. He can understand their discontent, understands with the breadth of his soul- but they’re not in the habit of killing good people, even if their definition has shifted a bit.

**Could tell someone about us.** It grumbles, and Eddie purses his lips together. 

Once, the threat of someone exposing them hadn’t been enough to merit a death sentence. People in the wrong place, at the wrong time, who caught a glimpse of black roiling over Eddie’s skin before the monster of San Francisco was seen nearby. People who interviewed the homeless about the creature seen in the streets, coincidentally usually spotted right near their camp. People who were curious, like Aubrey, but who decidedly meant no harm. 

But they’re more careful now. 

Once, the threat of separation hadn’t terrified them so much. 

It had always been scary. Always seemed like a death sentence to the highest degree. If the symbiote was ever ripped from him, Eddie was sure it would take a few of his major organs with it. His beating heart, wrestled from his chest along with the inky tendrils that cradled it. Not that Venom would ever want to hurt their body, would ever do so on purpose- but tangled as they were, who could know what belonged to who now? Which organs would stay with him and which were the symbiote’s now?

It had always been scary. Now it was the end of the world. Even if Eddie kept their organs, even if all that left their body was the symbiote’s black mass, he couldn’t survive. As sure as the atmosphere was poison and fire to Venom without a host, it would choke the air from his clear, perfect lungs until he drowned in the loneliness, the not-enough, the rage and shame and need.  
And so, their definition of a good person has shifted a bit over the years. Anyone who wanted to expose them, or even had the ability to do so: what were they but an assassin, waiting in the wings of the world to deliver a deathblow. To panic the public, to send people after them with flamethrowers and sounds that ripped their molecules apart. 

Anne had called them paranoid. She’d seemed sad as she said it. Defeated. 

“I don’t think he will,” Eddie tries, but even as he says the words he knows they aren’t enough to satisfy their fear. Shared fear, shared paranoia that he hadn’t recognized as belonging to them both; something seeping across their bond, impossible to tell the origin of. He’s suddenly been worried all along, suddenly realizing that of course Will is a threat to them. It doesn’t matter how much chocolate was in the coffee, how kind he’d been, how he cared for Eddie’s safety. Venom is Eddie’s safety.

Still, some part of him rebels at the idea of turning around, of glutting themselves on his blood. A part that feels strange and foreign, small and tired and willing to fight despite it. Eddie directs his attention to that part of their mind and finds it feels familiar, if old. Like a favorite shirt that no longer fit.

Ahead of them, a horse grazes along the side of the trail. Venom is moving before Eddie registers what the creature is. 

Blood spurts along their body and it’s like a warm shower at the end of a long day. They must have been starving- they hadn’t realized how hungry they were as they tear the creature’s stomach like a whirlwind, gorging themselves on arteries that still spill fresh blood in their teeth.

It’s only moments before their feast is done and they’re left standing in a bloodied patch of dirt and grass. It’s a few more seconds before they start off in a new direction and he feels the sweet glut of their meal sneaking over his mind to pull him back into sleep that only feels slightly unnatural. Slightly forced.

Eddie’s dreaming. 

He’s a child again, except there’s a huge black shadow hanging over him wherever he goes. It keeps the bullies away from him, keeps his father from screaming, keeps him safe and nestled within its shade. Like it was always meant to be like that.

Eddie’s dreaming.

Carlton Drake is dead but he’s here, watching Eddie scream over the belongings he pulled from the apartment he and Anne had shared. The symbiote that extends from Drake’s shoulders is Venom and it grins at Eddie and he knows instinctively this is wrong.

Eddie’s dreaming.

Maria hugs him. When he pulls away, she’s Gabe now, and Gabe looks old and tired like his mother did. Like Eddie will never. Sam’s afraid of them now, and Julie isn’t, but they’re still both made of the stardust and bone that crushes easily between Venom’s teeth.

Eddie’s dreaming.

They’re hunting for the first time together. Truly hunting, no protest from Eddie’s mind, no worry, no fear. The thrill of the night races through them, the sharp air of the wind at its heels. They catch someone in the back of an alley and he feels it viscerally, the heat of his skin as they take a bite, the taste of sweat and adrenaline and sweet fear. Eddie can still hear that man, the first one, scream and feel the give of his flesh. It feels real.

He wakes up with the sound ringing in his ears. They’re on the trail still, but its dark out. Their head looks down, and he sees they’re slumped underneath a tree, back against the rough bark. Venom’s humming in their head, a pleased, pleasant sound. Black tendrils stroke through their hair and down their cheeks, and he feels it wiping something away from their skin.

_V?_ He asks in his mind, and he doesn’t know why he’s unsure.

**Sleepyhead.** Comes the purring, and he’s gathered up in shadowy arms that stick to his skin beneath his clothes like burrs on seeds.

**Is something wrong?** The symbiote asks and Eddie takes stock of the situation with slight unease, feeling like he’s forgotten something. But he’s cradled in their arms, warm and full. The image of a nearby town runs through his head and he knows that its their next destination instinctively. 

_Nothing big. Don’t worry._ He replies, and they push themselves off the ground to begin the trek towards town.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not dead. also i literally know nothing about the avengers, but I like thor. so.

People look at them. Eddie’s wearing a leather jacket in middle of the afternoon in the Arizonian summer. He’s not hot because its Venom twisted over his arms, but people look like they’re worried about him. It feels strange to know that. The people that camp around them back home have long since stopped looking at him like that.

The air conditioning of the souvenir shops does feel nice. It blasts them in the face like an arctic wind when they walk inside the first store they see. Shelves full of trinkets and baubles tempt Eddie’s attention away from the itch in the back of his mind that something’s just not right. 

Venom’s restless even though it lies still, moving underneath his skin as though it wishes to burst forth and tear them away from this place.  
He reaches out to feel the cool metal of a keychain shaped like a cactus and accidentally crushes it with their strength. Luckily the shopkeeper is too preoccupied with stacking sunblock to see the slip.

_What’s wrong?_ Eddie asks in their mind again, and just the fact that the question has come up so often in the past few days feels like something’s off. They never had to check in like this before, in their routine. In San Francisco things were always alright.

**Feel like we’re being watched.** The symbiote answers, and the creeping feeling of eyes suddenly sweeps up between Eddie’s shoulder blades. He draws the Venom jacket closer around him, like armor, but the sensation is gone in an instant. It was only Venom sharing what it was feeling, only Venom showing him why he’s bubbling and boiling in the space beneath their skin.

For once, Eddie’s going to be the protector.

He shuffles through the store at a slow pace, eyes darting around for anyone showing undue interest in them. The corner of the store is the best place to be- up against the walls, pretending to peruse the shelves. He palms a shotglass that says _‘I’m the One to Blow if You Want a Drink Around Here,’_ because he thinks he would have found it funny once upon a time and because he wants to make it look like he doesn’t know they’re being watched. Stealing something is a good way to lull your stalker into a false sense of security. Venom pulls it up into his black mass, and they have a new possession in the world. 

One sleeping bag, check. Three blankets, check. A battered old notepad, check. A novelty shotglass, check. 

Its disconcerting, not recognizing the gaze himself; he used to be so good at it. Journalistic perks. He runs through a list of humans he knows around here and comes up with only one name.

Maybe Will recognized them. Maybe he came into town for supplies and caught a glimpse of the man-and-monster-and-dragon he’d seen in the bottom of the canyon. Maybe he was watching them to see what they would do. 

But the figure that Eddie finally alights on is far too tall to be Will. The man is young, with a muscular build and shaggy blonde hair tied at the nape of his neck. He’s hovering around the rack full of candy and reading the ingredients list without looking around him, but Eddie knows he’s been reading that bar for the last three minutes. Amateur- they’ve already moved on to pawing through a rack of t-shirts, like they care about what any of the slogans say.

The man looks familiar. Venom rumbles with discontent and Eddie soothes his palms over the sleeves of his jacket, looking for all the world like he’s cold to the other customers in the store. 

They’re in danger of spending too much time in here without buying anything. He remembers the rules he set for himself when he was a kid, swiping food from corner stores because his dad said no dinner that night. Keep moving. Smile if spoken to, don’t engage on your own. No more than ten minutes in a store, no less than three.

At minute seven they walk back out into the hot desert sun and blink in the blinding light. Venom is concentrated mostly on their back now, keeping watch as they weave through a throng of people on the sidewalk. Eddie’s mind races, clearer than its been in days now that he has a goal, a worry.

**FBI or CIA, maybe? Finally deciding to track us down?**

Venom hisses and the collar of the jacket suddenly constricts, clinging tight to their throat. Its comforting, feeling his Other’s presence like that. It feels safe.

**Kill them all.** Venom tells him, and Eddie passes on the immediate surge of fond and protective feelings that well up inside him. 

_Let them talk to us as a human first. We don’t know what they know._

Being separated is not an option. They’ll die before they split, before they let anything in the universe touch each other.

There’s a hand on Eddie’s shoulder that doesn’t belong to him, doesn’t belong to Venom, doesn’t belong anywhere near their body. Venom spits curses in their mind but does not react, seeding control of the situation to Eddie, remaining just the jacket he wears a bit too tightly on his body.

The blonde man from the shop is standing there with a friendly smile. Eddie wonders if he remembers how to act human.

“What?” He asks, hoping he put the right amount of annoyance in his voice. 

“I think you might have forgotten something at that store back there,” The behemoth says, friendly and unassuming. “You’re supposed to pay for things before you leave, here.”

Eddie frowns. A security guard for the store, then? What the fuck kind of shitty tourist trap shop had the money for their own private, plainclothes security guards?

“Oh?” He says, reaching down to pat the pockets of the jacket. Venom helpfully slips the shotglass into his hand and he holds it up like he’d forgotten all about it, letting his mouth form an ‘O’ of surprise.

“Aw shit, man, you’re right!” Eddie exclaims, and the stranger laughs a booming laugh at him. “I’m so sorry, I’ll go back right now!”

“Of course, my friend. Come with me and we’ll make it right.”

The hand on their shoulder is back and Venom longs to bite it off. The blonde man does not steer them towards the shop- instead, he pulls them out of the busy sidewalk traffic and off down a smaller path, one that leads between the buildings and away from the crush of humanity. 

Their heartbeat quickens and Venom readies itself to coat them in their onyx scales and fly from this threat.

“This isn’t the shop,” Eddie says instead, pulling out from under the man’s grip as they enter a secluded plaza. There’s no one else around and the other man’s blue eyes are almost too intense to look at. Like chips fallen from the sky.

“You can stop pretending,” Blondie says, dropping the friendly look from his face. Eddie shoves his hands in his pockets and they’re instantly coated in black oil, sharp-tipped fingers ready to fight.

“What are you talking about?”

**Danger Eddie. We know him. We recognize him. We’re in danger.**

The memories suddenly resurface. So long ago, the news that humans were not alone in the world. A man with blonde hair and kind eyes who seemed to be more a god than an alien. Good deeds attached to his name wherever he went. Eddie had forgotten. This was Thor.

Before Thor can do anything, Venom pours itself over their skin. He is caught up in the rush of becoming whole, becoming one with his love, but the transformation is tinged with fear, desperation, and the blinding rage that binds their molecules together. 

**_“Don’t touch us,”_** They say together. The part of them that is more symbiote, more klyntar, wants to hunt and rage and slash the man in front of them until he’s unrecognizable. Murder and main and destroy him for daring to scare them, daring to think he could put a hand on them, their Eddie, **Their Eddie-**

He’s a good person, the human in their mind whispers. Venom snaps at the empty air, responding to the thought with anger, but Thor reacts like it was an attack meant for him. 

“Brock, if you’re in there-“ The blonde man starts, but goo catches him in the chest and throws him back against the wall of the building. Eddie panics, watching through their eyes but stuck in the back seat, because this is Thor. Thor’s strong enough to hurt them, Thor could tear them apart because he doesn’t understand, Thor needs to know they’re together by choice and they’re not bad, just scared and hungry and-

**-and he wants to hurt, threaten everything they’ve built for themselves, take half of their self away. Never show Eddie the stars, never live to see the stars wink out, never hunt or climb or feel themselves fall asleep and remain awake at the same time, never be the dragon and the knight and the protector and-**

_-and Julie had a plastic figure of Thor when she was younger that she liked to carry around everywhere because it made her feel safe, and they’d been jealous then but this is Thor, the real one, and he’s good and if Eddie can just make him understand with words, words used to be his strong suit, if he can just break through Venom’s rage, just get past the panic and the-_

They’re human and lying on their back, staring up at the sky. Thor hovers over them with a clenched fist, but the sudden sight of the human face staring up at him must have stilled the blow. Venom thrashes and it hurts Eddie to push it down, hurts him to quell his symbiote’s anger when it is righteous and just but he can do this.

“Don’t hurt us,” He pleads with the man above them and Thor frowns at the timbre of their voice.

“Leave the human’s body, Klyntari.” He commands. 

A _**‘No’**_ snarls out of them, so thick and fierce it makes Thor recoil like it was a physical blow.

“We’re not hurting anyone,” Eddie continues, and the bands of black around his wrists are so tight and constricting its cutting off the blood flow. With his hands newly freed from where they’d been pinned, he brings up the cuffs of the jacket to his mouth and kisses at them, nervously soothing both Venom and himself. 

“Am I speaking with Brock now?” Thor asks, and he still seems angry.

“You always were, I promise, just-“ Eddie’s tripping over himself to get the words out of his mouth. “We don’t want to be separated. Just leave us alone, we aren’t hurting anyone-“

Their latest meal was a horse. Why had Thor decided to track them down now?

“Not hurting anyone?” The thunder god boomed, and Eddie scrambled away from him. There’s tendrils hovering up their face again, threatening to engulf them once again in their armor, but he pushes away the urge to hide within Venom. Thor will listen. He has to.

“The people protect you where you’ve made your nest. You’re notoriously difficult to track down. But the moment you leave, you murder an innocent-“

“We haven’t! We didn’t-“  
“-Ripped the head from his-“  
“-It was a horse, we were-“  
“-Let the human go or I will-“  
“-Don’t understand!”

Eddie’s voice cracked. He found himself heaving the shotglass at Thor’s feet and the sound of shattering glass stopped them both in their tracks. They stared at the broken cup.

“…What do you think we’ve done?” The human asked at last, words unwavering but low. Just a misunderstanding. Nothing else. Never mind the guilt radiating from Venom in waves, never mind the fact that he’s thinking about the dream he had now, the one from their first hunt, only it feels a lot more recent and the feeling of arterial blood spraying across their face is far too new for however long ago it happened.

Nevermind the fact that they’re Venom and they’re one and the same, because he knows and trusts them with every fiber of his being and his entire mind is built around their partnership and if he acknowledges that Venom remembers with visceral, terrible clarity what happened to Will from the Canyon, then he just might break like the glass at their feet-

His symbiote wraps him up in the warmth of their flesh once again. Eddie falls into it gratefully, doesn’t fight this time as Venom takes over, calms and soothes and presents their true face to Thor once again. Their hands, the ones tipped in diamond claws, are shaking.

_**“Protecting ourselves,”**_ Venom says and there’s simple truth in it.

They own one sleeping bag. Three blankets. A battered old notepad. And a love so strong it smothers everything else.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haven't seen any of the avengers movies, don't plan to, just like thor. thanks

Thor buys them a drink. By buys them a drink, Eddie means Thor walked into the closest convenience store, picked up a bottle of $2 beer that was sitting in a bucket of melting ice outside, and bought it from a star-struck clerk at 11 in the morning with a wrinkled fifty he pulled from his pocket. Then he told the girl to keep the change and steered them out of the store and towards a deserted playground.

The swing seats are way too hot for this time of day, the metal poles already super-heated by the sun, but Eddie sits down anyway. He barely notices the chill of the bottle in his hand or the condensation that drips down his skin. Thor doesn’t talk, likely because he somehow has some inkling of the war raging in their mind right now.

_Trusted-_

**Keeping us-**

_Thought we-_

**Don’t be-**

_He didn’t-_

******Bigger threat-** ** **

“Venom,” Eddie says aloud. Thor starts and looks at them. He’s a nice guy- when he realized they were struggling, they were fighting and scared and so, so lost in the waves of guilt and agony and anger and betrayal, he stopped. Picked them up.

There’s hurt in the bond because they both know when Eddie said it aloud, he was only talking to the black flesh twisting over pale skin. Not referring to both of them.

Seconds drag on while Venom waits for the not-quite-human-anymore to say something else. It becomes clear Eddie isn’t going to. The symbiote manifests in a way it hasn’t for years, curving like a question mark from their- his shoulder. Eyes unneeded for so long blinking into existence, separate from human vision. Eddie has to readjust against the two visual feeds; he can see human features from Venom’s sight as he looks at the symbiote’s own face. Almost superimposed, but not melding together. For the first time in a long time, not blurring together.

It feels like fighting out from underneath the ocean’s waves. He wants nothing more than to dive back down but he can’t-

Can’t let it go this time, can’t let Venom smooth it over and fall back into sweet, bloody ink and teeth.

**“We love us,”** It says, and wields the words like a shield. Now Eddie’s the dragon all alone, and the symbiote is the knight who must overcome.

“I love you,” He replies and it’s meant to be comforting but the singular pronouns hit like the thump of claws against iron, screech in both their ears like pointed tips glancing off metal.

“Why would you-“ Thor starts. Both of them whip around to look at him and they’re hissing together, anger at the interruption filling both their minds. Eddie can see his face in the corner of Venom’s eyes, and watches the human eyes glaze over with klyntari white.

They’re still together even now, even like this, and it’s a beautiful, terrible thing.

The god of thunder goes back to idly swinging back and forth, sufficiently chastised. Its too much to hope for to think that he’ll leave them alone while they sort this out. They’re too dangerous. Too much of a threat to the world.

Eddie knows they’ll sort it out regardless of the intruder. There’s no other option.

What does it say about him, about their relationship, that he knows with certainty the death of a man he deemed innocent wouldn’t be enough to tear them apart?

**“…Scared, Eddie,”** Venom says at last. There’s still bands of inky flesh wrapped around his wrists like bracelets, like an embrace. Eddie stares at them.

“…He wasn’t a threat to us, V,”

**“Everything can be. Have to keep us safe,”**

“We’re safe! When we’re together, we’re safe!”

Venom’s the one that hammered that into his head, so much so that he daydreams of protective shadows hovering over him when he was afraid as a child. He remembers the bus and his panic attack and he feels his breathing quicken because god, how did he get here, he’s not supposed-

And V’s smoothing over his chest again, slowing his breathing for him now, in the moment. And Eddie has to push the offered comfort away because it’s so easy to accept.

**“Let us-”**

“No, V.”

**“Have to keep you safe, have to keep you…”**

He can hear that’s the end of the sentence, can hear that there is no ‘safe’ to be added there, and he throws his hands into the air. The black bands around his wrists thin as he brings attention to them, as if ashamed. Thor is looking at them too, with his mouth turned down in an unrecognizable twist.

“I’m yours,” Eddie says, because he doesn’t understand why Venom doesn’t know that. Their head is always full of it.

**“We’re the only thing,”** The symbiote whines and its suddenly desperate, needy. The flesh at his wrists tightens, holds onto him like Eddie might try to slip out of its grip. Might try to slip Venom off like a bracelet.

**“Being us is the only thing we’ve ever had all to ourselves. But Venom is not the only thing Eddie’s ever had,”**

Memories flash through their shared mind. Eddie’s sister, who’d tried so hard to fill the void of love that little Eddie needed. His boyfriend in college who’d told him he was too much work and broke his heart. Anne and her love, the care that she’d put into managing him. Like he was a project, something to be worked on to completion. Like he wasn’t finished, and sure she loved working on him, loved working to finish the project that was Edie Brock, but was that all he was? Something to be fixed?

Venom’s waving these memories around like they’re proof of something.

“You- You can’t… punish me for having relationships before you, Venom, that’s-“

**“Not punishing!”**

The bands grip bruising tight. Venom swirls in his stomach with such ferocity that Eddie feels like he’ll be sick. He forces himself to take a swig of the beer and lets the taste of horse piss roll over his tongue.

**“You think of them! You still feel connected to them, even though we’re here! We are all we have now but you still think of them and feel sad!”**

Venom’s angry he still remembers Anne? Venom’s angry he has human memories? Memories from before they were together? Memories from childhood that are so clouded with fog Eddie’s not sure they really happened?

**“We can’t stop the hurt and the longing. You long for things that aren’t us, and we-“**

“That’s just being human, V!”

The beer bottle shatters in their hand. The sound breaks something within Eddie.

“That’s just being human and being old! I miss them! I can’t do anything about it but miss them!”

There’s beer dripping down their hand mixed with blood. Eddie watches the red drip onto the sand of the playground, and doesn’t wonder whether the darkness, the black mixed in, is a trick of the light. Venom doesn’t try to heal the wounds.

**“We are not human though! We are more together, we are Venom!”**

“We’re- Venom, yes, we’re Venom! But we are still… We are still parts, V. There is still you and me.”

No matter how they try to forget. No matter how mixed they are, no matter if Eddie bleeds red or black, or if the symbiote somehow blends into his old memories, or if everything’s changed and they they’re the one thing that’s remained constant.

No matter how hard Eddie’s tried to forget.

Because he’s realizing that he has.

Anne hurts to think about. Her pretty blonde hair and the short bob she chopped it into when it started to turn white. The way she’d look at Dan when he talked about some patient he saved in the hospital that morning, with all the adoration of someone entranced. Anne wasn’t one for much romance, but Eddie had known how much she loved Dan.

How much she loved Gabe when he was born. How careful she was with the baby and how she trusted Eddie and Venom with him even when they started drifting.

It hurts to think about the time he saw his sister at the end of her life and she’d been afraid because he still looked like her kid brother.  
It hurts to know that he’s going to watch Gabe die the same way he watched Anne and Dan waste away, that someday Sam and Julie will have gray hair and wrinkles and maybe babies of their own that Eddie will have no choice but to love and care for and watch die.

Somehow, it hurts most of all to know that he’s never going to get to know himself in old age.

And he’s been avoiding that because its easy to be Venom and be something other than the human that hurts and feels and he can kind of understand how Venom thinks its protecting him when it wraps him up in love and hides him from the world that holds painful memories.  
Eddie’s been running from being human, been running from what feels bad and foreign and terrible to think about and Venom just- wants to keep him safe. Keep them safe.

He doesn’t know he’s crying until there’s tendrils at his cheeks and he’s still so goddamn angry about Will but he leans his head into the touch anyway because it feels natural and right and what the fuck are they anymore.

The symbiote knows everything he’s thinking.

**“It hurts you to be old and young at the same time. To miss them,”** It purrs in his ear, and its still talking aloud because that’s what Eddie wanted. Eddie needed that degree of separation for this conversation and it feels like far too wide of a gulf even though Venom’s pressed against his chest.

**“It hurts you to be human. Hurts us. Want to fix it.”**

He’s treated to himself in the symbiote’s eyes.

Eddie, perfect. Eddie who welcomed them in and tries so hard to be a good host when he’s already the best they’ve ever had. Eddie who they get to keep safe and take care of, Eddie who tortures himself over their diet even when they make the deal to only eat bad people and Eddie who adores them even as the consequences of their presence make themselves known. Even after everything he knows is gone.

Eddie who is hurt by his past even as he becomes disconnected from it, even after they remove themselves from society and lose their ties to the humans. They know it would be so much easier if Eddie wasn’t human. Or if he was only human and didn’t face down the fact that they will never, ever let him die like he’s staring down the loaded barrel of a gun that will always misfire. Security and danger in one.

And since separation is not an option, its easier if Eddie forgets.

Venom’s paranoia about being caught. The restlessness combined with the desire to wrap Eddie in inky black and keep him from the world that hurts him and reminds him. Knowing they’ll shatter if they ever are apart and the symbiote’s certainty that its okay, its how they’re meant to be. The confusion that the knowledge hurts and comforts its human in equal measure.

Will sees them and the symbiote is seized with rushing anxiety about other humans who won’t understand, will tell Eddie that its bad for him, its controlling him. Underlying it all is the feeling of guilt, but its what’s best for them. For Venom. Eddie would understand.

“…We can’t fix being human, Venom. Even if we’re scared or if we hurt because of it.”

His voice sounds hollow. He shouldn’t be saying these things aloud, but he presses on, because that’s how they ended up here. Love between the dragon and the hoard and the knight and the captured princess, all wrapped up into one.

Something warm presses inside of their chest, curled up next to their heart.

The conversation isn’t over. They both know that. But the screaming in their head is done and they understand marginally better and they’re… Ready to be together again. Black skin and pearly eyes and sharp teeth vanish beneath their skin once again and he shudders at the feeling of being whole once more. It’d been so long since they did that.

The cuts on their hand smooth over and all they’re left with is the dried blood pooling on their skin. Next to them the swing-set creaks and Thor drops his feet into the sand to slow his momentum. They hadn’t noticed he’d started swinging in earnest, like an oversized child with the playground all to himself.

“Hello,” He says rather awkwardly, when he notices their attention is back on him.

“Are you here to arrest us?” Eddie asks with black tar bubbling in the back of their throat.

“…The Avengers don’t exist anymore,” Thor says carefully. Body tensed like they’ll jump at him if he says the wrong thing.

“I do not work for a government of Earth. I am not an officer of any law.”

“So why are you here?”

Golden hair glints in the sunlight.

“I care for the Earth and her people. And I have worried, since I learned that your klyn- that you were here. I came to destroy the Klyntari if it is a threat to the world and to Edward Brock.”

**“Never hurt Eddie,”** The symbiote hisses with their voice. Thor keeps his expression neutral as he says-

“You already have.”

They both recoil. Suddenly they’re gagging, leaning over in the swing seat, retching into the sand. The mouthful of beer Eddie had choked down joins the bloodied sand.

It hurts more than anything they’ve ever felt to know that he’s right.

“…Help us,” Eddie chokes out, with his fingers white-knuckled around the chains of the swing seat. Thor looks at them with pity and doesn’t say anything at all.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> talk to the ones you love

Staring at Gabe’s door feels a lot like standing at the gates of hell itself, watching demons and imps beckon them in with sly, knowing grins. It feels like all that’s waiting for them is judgment and condemnation and righteous anger that will lock them out of the family’s lives forever.  
Maybe that’s just some of Eddie’s old catholic guilt rearing its head, years after he thought they were past that. 

Its just the same door they stood at only a few days ago. It feels like an eternity. The Christmas lights are a glaring signal to the rest of the world that this house has not yet moved on from the festivities of the holidays, despite the two months of time that’s passed. Gabe and Cole like to keep it up- 

For the twin’s birthday.

A sudden stab of panic through their stomach feels thick and sharp. The scarf made of black flesh around their neck constricts into armor, in anticipation of the realization that _holy fuck, there’s balloons in the yard and the sound of kid’s voices behind the door and Thor didn’t mention anything about the fact that they’re obviously walking into a birthday party for the twins, jesus christ they’ve got to leave because as much as the kids and Cole are used to them, they’re not ready for the whole neighborhood to see their freak of an uncle-_

But they’ve already knocked. At least it explains why Gabe had taken so long to open the door.

He’s standing there now, in a red sweater, looking at them like he can’t quite be sure they’re real. To be fair, he definitely wasn’t excepting them back for at least a month. And, well, they’ve got fucking Thor behind them and there’s guests standing behind Gabe, blinking at the strange disheveled man and the literal-god-of-thunder who have arrived very late to a child’s birthday party.

Venom’s bristling because Eddie’s upset and nervous and he can feel its inclination to take him away, spirit them off into the night and leave a confused but probably completely charming Thor to explain himself, but they’re still standing right there because-

Because this is about love and its about trying to reconcile their self with the ones they care for, and they promised themselves they could do this, and theres only a tiny percentage of them that thinks Thor would come after them anyway and its better to just get this over with. 

They don’t even really understand why they’re here. They need to talk, about the way their morals have shifted, about the way that Eddie half hates them for the murder and half justifies it to himself, and how that’s not healthy and completely disgusting and still somehow feels right. They explained some things to Thor, on the bus they took here. About who they were. A little about their lives. That there were some humans they did care for. And he steered them here. 

“Uncle V?” Gabe asks, too shocked to edit in their Cole-Approved name, and they both cringe. They force a smile and right away they can tell there’s too many teeth, because the woman in the corner with a plate full of little cheeses gasps and her hands shake. Quickly they put their smile away and moved out of the doorframe, so that Thor was in full view. 

“We brought Sam and Julie a present.” Eddie tries, with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Lucky for them, Cole comes through the door to see what the hell happened to make everyone stop and stare. His eyes light up with all the ardor of a man in love at first sight when he sees exactly who is gracing his home. 

“Sam! Julie!” He calls up the narrow stairs, and Eddie’s treated to the thudding of at least a dozen 12-or-thirteen-they-still-can’t-remember-year-olds as they tumble down the stairs, following the birthday boy and girl like curious ducklings. 

The resulting scream of excitement rolls through their body and they wince, black scarf around their neck shifting unhappily in the unnaturally high pitch of the children’s voices. 

Gabe takes the opportunity of ‘Oh my god! Its Thor! Thor’s here!’ and the resulting chaos to grab their elbow and pull them into the house. He bundles them into the side room, away from the commotion, and there’s a surge of love in their heart for the man who looks at them, exasperated and worried and still soft towards them. 

He had no idea what they’d done. What the symbiote had done, what Eddie could condone in the name of their happiness. What he had already condoned for years, with no Will to make him feel guilty while sheltered in love. 

“What the fuck, Uncle V?” He asks, no doubt wondering why the fuck they’re back weeks early with a god and a guilty conscience. Eddie shifts their weight, rocking back on their heels, trying to put some distance between them and Gabe. The motion doesn’t seem to be lost on their nephew but he doesn’t look hurt, just concerned. 

“Did something happen? Why did you bring Thor to our house?”

His face drops.

“Are we in trouble? Do I need to get everyone out?”

They throw up their hands.

“No! No, its- you’re fine, we promise, we wouldn’t-“

But of course Gabe isn’t referring to them at all and Venom shuts their mouth. They feel their guilt and shame as a flashing badge on their chest- its difficult to remember that others don’t see it.

They can understand how he’d come to the conclusion some giant monster or alien is about to attack his home. 

He seems to realize there’s something terribly wrong with them, but he doesn’t draw closer. He keeps the space they put between themselves and him, because he knows their issues with touch, with their relationship to the world around them, and he’s trying to be considerate.

Gabe is so much like his father.

And yeah, they hold a special place in their heart for his mother because Eddie didn’t automatically stop loving her the moment they broke up or the moment he knew that Venom was the only future he wanted. Like he’d said to his other earlier. 

But they’d known Dan for a long while too and had come to love him alongside Anne. 

And god, Eddie only thought of it a day ago so its still fresh in their mind from sitting on the bus, doing their best to answer Thor.

So much of the symbiote bled into their human countenance. And it must have-

The human part must have bled into the symbiote too. They’ve been thinking about how Eddie’s changed, how much he’s shifted, because here, on earth, he’s the original and the face they have to present to the world. And its so fucking self-centered.

The symbiote, his other, his love; they were a creature before their joining, much as they dislike to think of it. A creature from another place with their own sense of morality and rules and what’s right and wrong, and Eddie’s kind of come to the realization that they didn’t have love, or whatever it is that they’ve got going on here. It didn’t know human morals, conscience, feelings, until it got here, or at least couldn’t think about those things in the way humans did. 

And it loves Eddie with all it is, and it loves being them, and it would defend Gabe and his children, their little family, until the last beat of their heart. 

But the rest of the world?

The rest of the world is incidental. And it knows that Eddie’s human heart and mind care and it tries, and some of that bleeds over and that’s why they even love their family with the fierceness they do. 

But just like Eddie somehow, someway still bleeds red even when all their instincts scream it should be thick and black, the symbiote can’t change its nature. 

They’re crying again, looking at Gabe’s face.

He doesn’t deserve to have to deal with this. With them and their fucked up mind and the world they live in. Sam and Julie don’t deserve it. Anne and Dan didn’t deserve to have to deal with them.

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

“…We’re… We have to tell you something.”

Gabe knows something about their eating habits. They don’t know how much he knows, because they’ve never eaten, truly eaten, in front of him, but they didn’t make a special effort to hide it from him once he was an adult either.

“Okay.” Their nephew murmurs, replacing his worry with a carefully constructed encouraging smile.

“We- You know us. And you know we were once… Not us.”

“Yeah. Eddie and Venom.” 

Gabe says their names in a lower tone, like it’s a swear word and he’s five years old again.

“Yes. You know Eddie and Venom are still… Here. Right?”

“Uncle V, I pretty much got the whole story from mom. I know what you guys are,”

That’s news to them. 

“The… The whole story?”

“If you’re here to confess to me that you eat bad guys, I already know.”

They have to swallow around the lump in their throat that wants to end it here. Pretend like confessing that was what was on their mind, make up something to explain why Thor’s here, and run. Back to the safety under the bridge, their little nest they’ve built for themselves. 

“…No, that’s-“

Gabe trusts them and they don’t deserve it. 

“I mean. Yes, yes we do that, but that’s not-“

“I’m a journalist too. Its not hard to put together a serial killing spree that’s gone on for decades and your love of raw meat.”

“…Okay, but-“

Eddie suddenly chokes on a mouthful of black flesh. He can still breathe but he can’t form words, can’t move his mouth around the sudden swelling of ink that pours from between his lips. Gabe raises his eyebrows at the sudden display, the swiftness with which they are Venom and standing at their full height. For a split second Eddie wonders if they’re going to run. If they’re going to flee and leave their life behind because its too hard to face their nephew and his kids and some god damn consequences that they’ve been avoiding for years. 

But they remain in place. 

The symbiote has control of their throat now.

**“We are here to… Confess. To a wrong that I have done.”**

Eddie feels the usual stab of pain, the utter wrongness of the singular pronoun and he tries to reach out his other, to question and wonder because they could do this together. They were going to do this together. They are one and the symbiote- 

He can feel the shame that rolls off of it. Again its misguided, misplaced- shame at disappointing its loved ones, its host, its family. Not at the death of the man itself. But it presses on.

**“I am afraid to no longer be us.”**

The true-one-hundred-percent-full human in the room reaches out his hand questioningly. 

“Is someone threatening you Uncle V, because-“

The image of Gabe punching someone for them presents itself. They have no doubt he would fight fiercely to help them.

**“Nothing threatens us. But we have acted like there was something terrible that threatened to pull us apart, and in return have done a terrible thing ourselves.”**

Gabe falls quiet and seems to finally get that this is the time to listen, not to try and solve.

**“I do not deserve your love and trust… Eddie does.”**

Eddie struggles to voice a complaint, a scream, something- it feels as though his world falls down around him, because the symbiote is talking as though they’re second and he has a sudden conviction in his heart its about to leave him. That its decided Eddie is better off if he were human and only human. 

Soothing whispers run through his mind, tendrils of comfort that reach deep into his fear. The symbiote doesn’t push the comfort on him that he knows it could- doesn’t roll the blanket of fog and sweetness down like a washcloth over his mind. Deliberately letting him feel this pain and fear, and trying to reassure at the same time. 

**“But Eddie chooses to be part of us and that means I should be… worthy of him to meet that choice.”**

The nephew creeps closer, seemingly moving slow in an attempt not to startle them. He needn’t have worried- Venom would have torn their heart out for him if he’d asked for it then. 

The hug is shallow. Gabe seems careful not to sink too deep into their black flesh, like his intrusion might be unwelcome. Could ever be unwelcome in the world of love they've wrapped themselves in.

**_“…We have failed. But we’re trying. And we're sorry."_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for all your support. i'll be starting a fae au soon.


End file.
